Storm Project (2008)

Storm Project (2008)

The three sculptural works Barnacle (black), Barnacle (white) and Harpon 321 were commissioned by Selfridges as part of the stores theme called Storm Project. The concept of the project was based around windswept and atmospheric coastlines. The three sculptural pieces started from a large stockpile of man made debris that I had collected over several years on Dungeness Beach on the Kent coast. For Barnacle, the objects were classified simply by colour, while Harpon 321 is a popular rubber glove favoured by fishermen.

The title Barnacle refers to the marine shell fish that live by attaching themselves to the hulls of ships and rocks. Plastic objects take the place of the barnacle and attach themselves to a three dimensional star shaped structure. The shape of the structure references the sinister Second World War depth charges which were scattered in the seas floating freely until making contact with the hull of an unfortunate passing ship.

Harpon 321 is a bright orange rubber glove widely used in the fishing industry because they are extremely robust. Finding these stray gloves on the coast always sparks dark morbid thoughts and stories - what happened to the person who was once wearing the glove? Although each glove is identical when manufactured, after a life on the sea each one becomes transformed, showing stains and discolourment. The physical appearance of the gloves mimic the hardy beach vegetation found growing on Dungeness beach or exotic sea urchins with tentacles. All three sculptures were installed with rotators so that they slowly rotated within each window space.